Monday, August 17, 2009

Camponotus castaneus journal 8/17/09


I fed them immediately after the first workers were born for the previous update. But on the previous update I took the pictures before they started eating. Here you can see the ants storing the sugar water. The social stomach expands and the abdomen expands to the point where you can see through it. Queens tend to have a more cloudy interior, I suspect because of eggs and such.

Only three workers so far for both colonies. More will be born as you can see from the cocoons. Also notice the second batch of brood. Camponotus lay in batches at certain times of the year. This next brood will either over winter or hatch sometime in December/January. It might also bare the first major worker and or normal sized workers. The current workers being born in the colony are actually nantics; smaller than normal workers produced by queens as a faster way to get workers. There isn't much difference between a nantic and a regular workers though.

Hopefully more updates to come.